War Machine Cut From UFC

War Machine, the fighter formerly known as Jon Koppenhaver, has been given the proverbial boot from the UFC according to a report from MMA Junkie.

Apparently Machine (5-2) refused a fight with a “no name”, which naturally didn’t sit too well with UFC matchmaker Joe Silva. Machine also made some poorly worded remarks about the death of Evan Tanner on his MySpace blog, which ultimately resulted in his untimely release.

Machine on the “no name”:

“He said, ‘They want you to fight Brandon Wolff,'” War Machine said. “I said, ‘Who in the hell if [Brandon] Wolff?’…He has no name, no fans other than the guys in Hawaii, and I thought that if I beat him, then no one is really going to care because I beat someone with no name. And if I lose, everyone is going to say I lost to a guy with no name, so I said [expletive] that. I want to fight someone with a name. I said, ‘Give me Josh Burkman. Give me Dustin Hazelett. Give me someone with a name.”

Machine on Evan Tanner:

“What else is an underpaid fighter supposed to do at the end of his career?” War Machine wrote in the posting. “Cash in his 401K? Collect social security? Start to work some [expletive] job for 10 bucks an hour? (This) [expletive] ain’t boxing, and if you’re not Chuck [Liddell] or Tito Ortiz, you don’t get paid dick.”

“I still believe in my heart it was a suicide,” War Machine said. “Whether or not — maybe he didn’t shoot himself in the head, but I think he went up there maybe with plans not to come back. I just think he was a great fighter, he was a champion, and I guarantee you that he never made [expletive] for money. I guarantee you that he was at the end of his rope…He had nothing, dude. That could be the outcome for a lot of fighters, myself included. I for damn sure guarantee you that if I’m in my 40s and I didn’t make enough money and I don’t have my own gym to support myself or whatever, I’ll probably kill myself too.”

To sum things up, it seems the whole mess went down something like this:

“Joe Silva — he was pretty much on a power trip,” War Machine said. “He was like, ‘I already told you that I already have Wolff for War Machine. I don’t know who he is thinking he’s negotiating with me. You know what? I’m sick of this guy.’ Then he brought up the Evan Tanner thing. ‘He made a dumbass comment on Evan Tanner. He’s not supporting the UFC. You know what? War Machine is cut.’ And they cut me.”

While the man known as War Machine didn’t bring what one would call much needed depth to the welterweight division, I can’t say that I won’t miss his unique brand of entertaining craziness.